A/N: Whew! Last chapter for today; I will try to get the rest of them done soon! Please please please read and review, but most of all, enjoy!
Ch. 4 --- Catching a Break
After a while, my own inactivity began to unnerve and aggravate me: I wanted more with Tifa, and I wanted to show her just how much I cared for her, but it was one of the many things I still didn't know how to go about. I tried numerous things, but they all seemed to go awry or not be poignant enough to give Tifa a clue.
I gave her flowers once, after a longer-than-I-would-have-liked delivery, as an I'm-coming-home gift. She hugged me again, and put them in a vase, but when she said, "You're such a thoughtful friend", the glow sort of dimmed. As I didn't know what to say and didn't want to contradict her, I just nodded and took it as it was.
I helped her in the bar and ottherwise a lot; she seemed to enjoy it when I would take it upon myself to help with dishes or to stay with her for a while when the children went to bed and just talk. Each time, I found myself wanting to tell her just as plain as day that I loved her, but each time, I was speechless with fear. Not something I liked admitting to myself, either, but it had no other justification.
I even resorted to asking the kids for help, and what a mess that was... I asked Denzel what her favorite food was, slightly embarrassed that I didn't myself know, and when he told me, I decided to cook it. Of course, it went downhill from there. When I told Tifa that I wanted to cook the meal that night, she stared at me as if I was insane, first, and then happily agreed. But... I wasn't as adept at cooking as I thought I would be, and, two hours later, I emerged from the kitchen, defeated, covered in flour and oil, something resembling gravy that was supposed to be mashed potatoes all over my clothes, and with chocolate something in my hair. I don't think I'd ever seen Tifa laugh so hard in her life, and I had to admit, it was funny, but my perfect evening had been ruined, and I went to bed feeling like – for lack of a better word – a huge dork.
Okay, so I was not a chef. I could deal with that. But I had to think of some way, some wonderfully amazingly astounding way to tell Tifa how I felt, or I thought I might explode. Problem was, I was all out of ideas, and I knew I had to turn to someone else for help. That was where Yuffie came in... another mistake.
"Buy her something pretty!" Yuffie had said, too excited by my own news to tell me what. So I thought about it, and after I had duly threatened Yuffie with her life and was certain that she wouldn't be spilling the beans, I looked for something that I thought she would like. I considered everything, from handmade snow globes to crystal vases, from glass figurines to interesting paintings, but nothing really jumped out at me. Finally, I just decided on a single blown-glass flower that could set on a shelf and look pretty. I took it to her in the box the store had put it in, and admittedly, it had been a good idea: she teared up when she saw what it was and she smiled beautifully. Carefully setting it aside on the counter, she threw her arms around me, and for one, incredible moment, I thought that maybe it would be right this time, that maybe she'd gotten the hint.
However, it was at that moment that Marlene and Denzel decided to come rushing and tumbling down the stairs, calling my name and happy to see me. "Ooh, what's this?" Marlene had cried, picking up the glass flower. And, before even a small word of protest could be uttered from me, even before Tifa could remove her arms from my neck and turn around, Marlene had promptly tripped over Denzel, taking both him and the fragile flower with her onto the floor. It shattered into a million pieces, and she said, quite cutely, "Oops." I groaned and put my head in my hands as Teef began to clean it up, apologizing to me over and over. She promised that she would repay me, that it had been a 'sweet gift', but I was only concerned with the lost opportunity. It seemed like I was never going to catch a break!